First year master’s student, Megan, recently presented an overview of her thesis proposal titled Attitudes, Perceptions About Child Abuse and Neglect: Changes Between Generations. Megan is interested in the perceptions of potentially harmful parenting techniques. She would like to analyze the differences in perceptions on child punishment across four generations—Traditionalist, Baby Boomer, Generation X, and Millennial—and if the gender and age of the child has an impact on those perceptions. Megan predicts that people will be more accepting of various forms of punishment if the child is older. She also predicts that punishments will be more acceptable within male children. Finally, Megan believes people will find punishment more accepting if they have experienced various forms of punishment themselves or if they are from the older generations. Megan hopes to gather data that can help clarify acceptable and unacceptable forms of punishment for children in society. This will help the general population better understand when certain forms of punishment are acceptable. We are excited to see what Megan finds and wish her the best of luck!
FF-PTG LAB 